A couple of days ago I was working on a sweater, sitting in a lovely lush grassy spot on top of a hill some miles from my house. And just as I got to the exciting part of separating the sleeves (it's a top-down sweater in the round), I managed to drop my tapestry needle. The needle was one of those aluminium ones, anodized a nice shade of green. So you probably see where this is going. Green needle, green grass… After a frustrated search I finally came to terms with the fact I would likely never see it again! Which is a shame, but at least I was still able to move the sleeve stitches onto scrap yarn, using my knitting needles. And in case this is not a method familiar to everyone, I thought it might be useful to share it.

To be clear, this is a slower and less efficient process than simply threading the scrap yarn through your live stitches with a tapestry needle. But in case you are stuck, here is how:

Start by arranging the scrap yarn in your hand as if you are going to knit with it, with the short end of the scrap yarn being where where the working yarn would normally flow from. Then Ktog as many stitches you can comfortably manage (the picture shows k3tog, but you can do K2tog, K5tog, whatever).

Now, with your working needle, pull at the the knitted stitch you have just created until the short end of the scrap yarn pops out.

And - voilà! The stitches are now threaded onto the scrap yarn.

Obviously, the more stitches you can Ktog at a time, the faster this will go. Just be careful not to take on so many as to drop stitches or make the process so awkward that it is actually slower than doing fewer at a time.

While not quite as efficient as simply threading the stitches onto scrap yarn, if you find yourself without a tapestry needle it's better than having to put your work aside just as you are getting to the exciting part!